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1971 was the only year Plymouth built a four-headlight Barracuda, and it happened just as the whole muscle car market began to collapse. Total production fell by more than 66 percent, and only 115 buyers combined got the last-ever 426 Hemi ‘Cuda. Here’s what made this troubled model year one of the most collectible in Barracuda history.
A corporate rule against big engines in mid-size cars kept the Chevelle boxed in for years, until General Motors lifted it for 1970. Chevrolet responded by dropping in a 454-cubic-inch V8, with the top LS6 version producing 450 horsepower. Here’s how that single rule change turned the Chevelle into one of GM’s most formidable muscle cars.
Dodge offered the 1970 Challenger with two very different versions of its 440-cubic-inch V8: a single four-barrel Magnum and a triple-carbureted Six-Pack that turned in a 13-second quarter mile from the factory. Both sat just below the legendary Hemi in the lineup. Here’s what separated these two big-block Challengers from each other.
Pontiac’s Ram Air IV was officially rated at 370 horsepower, but almost everyone who worked on it believed the real number ran closer to 400. Built for only two years and installed in fewer than 1,808 GTOs and Firebirds combined, it remains one of the rarest engines Pontiac ever offered. Here’s what made this underrated powerhouse so special.
Ryan Martin’s Fireball Camaro shows up to a $50,000 grudge race not to look pretty but to hurt feelings — and it is dialed in to a frightening degree. The crew says it makes roughly 3,000 horsepower, and the unnerving part is that comes on the “small” turbos. Fifth on the Street Outlaws list, it is a clinic in what it takes to run up front in no-prep. Watch the beast go to work at Armageddon.
A handful of original miles can be worth more than a six-figure restoration, collector cars with under 100 miles routinely fetch 88% above guide value. This piece digs into why untouched originality commands such a steep premium, and what really separates a genuine “survivor” from a car that just looks old.
Turbocharging looks like a simple bolt-on upgrade until you actually try it, then the fuel system, the tuning, and sometimes the internals all show up on the to-do list too. Here’s what forced induction actually does to a naturally aspirated engine, and why one new part tends to drag a dozen others along with it.
The Shelby GT350R traded comfort for capability, pairing a naturally aspirated flat-plane V8 with a stripped-down, track-tuned chassis. It became one of the most focused Mustangs Ford has ever built, reviving Carroll Shelby’s original mission decades later. Here’s what set this test-drive-worthy Mustang apart from every other pony car on the lot.
Restore a Corvette too close to perfect and purists call foul; restore it too loose and you lose the numbers-matching value collectors chase. This decades-old argument over Corvette restoration standards, factory-correct versus “better than Detroit ever made it,” still splits owners today. Here’s both sides of a debate that has no clean answer.
The 2018 Dodge Challenger SRT Demon stole the show at the 2017 New York International Auto Show, unveiled on stage by Vin Diesel. Its supercharged 6.2-liter HEMI V8 makes 840 horsepower and 770 lb-ft, enough for a certified 9.65-second quarter mile at 140 mph – a time so quick the NHRA officially banned the Demon from competition. It’s also the first production car certified by Guinness World Records to lift its front wheels at launch. Only 3,000 will be built, all for North America.
Only 63 Dodge Chargers left the factory with a 426 Hemi under the hood in 1971 — the engine’s final year in the model — out of more than 50,000 Chargers sold that year. This particular car isn’t just one of those 63; it’s the very first one built, a pilot car that wasn’t even supposed to reach the public.
A single option on the 1957 Chevrolet order form turned a mild Bel Air into a car NASCAR banned within months. Rochester fuel injection pushed the 283 small-block to exactly one horsepower per cubic inch, a first for General Motors. This is the story of the Black Widow-era Chevy and the engine that got it kicked out of stock car racing.
Ford built the Boss 429 Mustang for exactly one reason: to legally race a NASCAR engine that was never designed to fit inside a pony car. Getting there meant outsourcing assembly to an outside shop, deliberately underrating the horsepower on paper, and building barely 1,359 examples before quietly killing the whole program in 1970.
This “sweet” 1962 Chevrolet Impala two-door hardtop arrived the year the Super Sport package truly caught on with buyers, adding SS badges, swirl-pattern trim, and spinner-style wheel discs for just $53.80. Engine choices that year ranged from a comfortable 327 small-block up to the fearsome dual-quad 409, capable of quarter-mile runs under 15 seconds. It’s a snapshot of Chevrolet’s full-size lineup right as performance culture took hold.
While the rest of Detroit was detuning engines to survive insurance premiums and emissions rules, Pontiac quietly hand-built one more real muscle car and buried it deep in the Trans Am options sheet. Fewer than 1,200 SD-455s were ever built across two model years, each one carrying a race-spec engine most buyers never even knew was available.